Being ginger's been the making of us

Ann McFerran discusses the gingerism her children have encountered throughout their lives and how they feel about being red heads today. Particularly interesting is the distinctive difference between Canadian and British reactions to red hair.

When we returned to the UK, there wasn't much let-up, only instead of admiration, those who stared and shouted names at my son because of his hair were mostly other children. Copper knob, ginger nut, carrot top, Duracell, ginger ninja; the names were not particularly inventive and, with the exception of the latter, didn't seem to have changed since I was a child. “I was probably oversensitive to the names,” admits Patrick, 30.

I now think that I wasn't sensitive enough to my son or aware enough of the kind of routine bullying that is regularly meted out to gingers, and particularly to young gingers whose hair colour is at its most extreme. I may even have exacerbated the problem: I thought my son's hair was such a spectacular colour that I let it grow quite long to show it off.

Source: Times Online

Love before ginger extinction?

It is now a commonly held belief that red heads will be extinct within 100 years. Aoife Finneran ponders the absence of ginger appreciation within our final years of existence.

THERE'S nothing like the threat of extinction for heightening our sense of appreciation. Isn't that why we welcomed Boyzone back with open arms and mounted a campaign to save Cadbury's Wispa from the grave?

Why then, am I still waiting for the redhead love-in, the mass hysterical display of affection that was supposed to follow the news that redheaded people are a dying breed? In less than 100 years, thanks to recessive genes, redheads could be reduced to a mere historical footnote. Considering we currently account for less than 2pc of the world's population, it wouldn't be that difficult to snuff us out.

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